In spite of rise in heavy-weight Reliance Ind (RIL), the BSEbenchmark Sensex snapped its 2-day winning spree by slipping 71 points to endat 17,657.21 due to profit-booking mainly in FMCG, Metal, Consumer Durable andbanking counters on the back of lower European advices.
Heavyweights like ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys, TataSteel, SBI, Sterlite Ind GAIL and Hindalco suffered losses while RIL, L&T,HDFC, M&M, Hero MotoCorp and Cipla attracted good buying support andnotched handsome gains, cushioning the sensex fall to certain extent.
Cigarette major, ITC was the top loser from the sensex packwith a fall of 3.59 per cent on fears about regulatory action at home afterAustralia called on the world to match its tough new anti-tobacco marketinglaws that will ban logos on cigarette packs.
However, other heavyweight, RIL was in the limelight afterthe Goldman Sachs said that RIL can potentially become a USD 100 billion stockby fiscal 2017 from its current market capitalisation of around USD 46.6billion. The stock closed up by 2.04 pct above psychological mark of 800. Ittouched a 5-month high during trading.
The BSE benchmark Sensitive Index resumed better and wastrapped in a narrow range of 17,763.59 and 17,640.62 before finishing at17,657.21, showing a net loss of 70.99 points or 0.40 per cent from itsTuesday's close. The sensex had risen by 170.46 points or 0.97 per cent in lasttwo days.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down by 17.40 points or0.32 per cent to settle at 5,362.95. .
Asian stocks ended mostly higher after strong US economicdata released yesterday. Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Japan, South Koreaand Taiwan were up by between 0.03 pct to 1.88 pct while indices in China andHongkong down by between 0.32 pct to 0.45 pct.
European shares were also trading lower in their earlytrade. Key indices in France, Germany and UK declined by 0.03 per cent to 0.16per cent.
Back home, out of the 30 sensex family shares 20 closed withlosses while others ended with gains.
Other major losers from the sensex pack were Hindalco Ind(2.75 pct), Sterlite Ind (2.44 pct), Gail India (2.17 pct), Tata Stl (1.93pct), Wipro (1.59 pct), Icici Bank (1.30 pct), HDFC Bank (1.22 pct), NTPC (1.05pct), Maruti Suzuki (0.94 pct) and SBI (0.87 pct).
However, Hero Motocorp rose by 2.69 pct followed by M&M2.13 pct, Cipla 2.01 pct, Larsen 1.57 pct and HDFC 1.04 pct.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-FMCG dropped by 2.06 pctfollowed by BSE-Metal 1.44 pct, BSE-CD 1.02 pct and Bankex 0.76 pct whileBSE-CG firmed up by 0.82 pct and BSE-Oil&Gas by 0.65 pct.
The market breadth turned negative as 1,521 shares endedwith losses while 1,306 shares finished with gains. The total turnover moved upslightly to Rs 2,288.29 crs from previous turnover of Rs 2,154.42 crs.
Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) pumped inRs 258.21 crore on August 14 as per provisional data with stock exchanges.